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Vey
A Brief History Nolvac nolvæk is an island nation to the north east off the coasts of Al’terra and Septavia. It is so well hated throughout the continent, its real name has been forgotten by all but historians and native inhabitants. The correct name for the island kingdom is Nulvey nəlveɪ from which Vey veɪ, which is both the people as well as the language, is derived. The people are of medium stature, olive skinned, with relatively dull coloured eyes, and dark brown or black, occasionally blue shaded, wavy or curly hair. Perfectly straight hair or particularly vivid eyes are signs of the Choosing. The people eat with two utensils and occasionally hands, considered barbaric by neighbouring regions, and their diet is primarily seafood, occasionally birds, with tough to grow vegetables or salt water plants. It is standard for all children to be born singularly, unlike the Al’terrians who frequently have fraternal twins, so multiples are culturally significant to the Chossing. Children are raised collectively between three to five families which can include extended families and taught to swim immediately; death by drowning is quite rare. Communities and cities are built on or around the water respectively. The Vey are known for having beautiful singing voices. Al’terrian magic involving water, or particularly singing, is all taken from ‘Nolvac’ culture. Everyone has some command of singing although they may choose not to. Singing is a traditional form of storytelling, communication, and self expression. The Vey believe in water as an all encompassing deity. The Chosen (from the Choosing) are brought up primarily as singers who know the water intimately, through meditation and prayer. The Chosen do not have children and perform magic from healing to killing based on song as well as leading the culture religiously. Their magic comes from the water just as they come from the water and return to it at death. Daily activities involving water (ex. drinking, washing, and pouring) are ritualized by the entire population. The Vey believe they come from the water and return to it, that it is larger than them, and have no desire for conquering land. Piercing locations include: forehead, brdige of nose, nostril, septum, arch over nose, upper lip, lower lip, chin, cheek, under eye, corner of eye, side of face, ear lobe, ear helix, tragus, neck, wrist... The language is mostly set apart from the other nations and little change has occurred to the phonology in the past three thousand years. Only because of continuous wars with Al’terra, the Vey language dropped the h phone in favour of ʔ which is a shared sound common to almost all languages on the continent. Given the musical nature of the people, Vey has been constructed to lend itself easily to song. This tends to favour more vowels than mainland languages, especially in ending words, and does not end words with harder consonants such as k and d. The orthography is notably wave-like and tends to flow right to left. Each vowel, distinct diphthong, and consonant are assigned their own symbol; one symbol per sound. The symbols are written without gap and the common line starts the sentence, threading between symbols to show distinct words, and ending the sentence. The writing system read left to right because the majority of the Vey are right handed. By contrast, Al’terrian people are dominantly but no exclusively right handed, and usually ambidextrous or write with both hands to begin with. Phonology Morphology (The Vey Dictionary) Affixes Derivational grammatical meaning, often change category of word - Adding the ending ʃ to a noun makes it into an adjective (ɪʃ if the noun ends in a consonant that cannot be easily blended) Example: water voɹ becomes watery voɹʃ Inflectional grammatical information, like plurality - The adding of a prefix (ɹɪ ɹu, or ɹo) denotes different degrees of negativity on a verb: not, rarely, and never respectively. Example: ‘vaɪ vo’ (I swim) becomes ‘vaɪ ɹɪvo’ (I don’t swim) - Adding the prefix læ makes a verb infinitive Syntax and Grammatical Rules Order: Subject Verb Object - Adjective and adverb always proceed the words they modify. - Interrogatives end the sentence. - Articles always directly proceed the noun they modify with other adjectives coming before (ex. You would say ‘blue the dog’ instead of the English ‘the blue dog’). - Negatives always directly attach to the verb they modify with other adverbs coming before (you would say ‘I quickly never run’ instead of the English ‘I never run quickly’) Sample Sentences I love you. vaɪ maɪ nə When is the blue ship in? æʃ də imeɪ seɪ bə vɛnʔɒ We never sing with them! dʒaɪl ɹoʃə mɛsə kimə Non-Verbal Communication Tide out – With the right hand fingers together, the palm is placed in front but not touching mid-chest. The hand then dips down and is turned so the palm is facing away. The gesture looks like a graceful version of brushing dirt of your shirt, but is slower. This is a farewell gesture associated with tides going out, a symbol of the water leaving. Typically the gesture is returned by another speaker with the right hand however if the two speakers are bonded (the equivalent of married), they gesture may be mirrored so they end up holding hands. This gesture is more usual in important partings rather than day-to-day partings. With either hand, cup the hand around the ear of another person and continuing to trace the top of the jaw is considered an intimate gesture only ever shared between couples. Since silver piercings, especially at the ears, are a symbol of social status, they are commonly looted after battle and ripped out of slaves. It is therefore an intimate thing to let someone so near their ears. Proxemics Intimate space – a hand’s width apart to in arm’s reachable: ‘touchable’ Personal space – just outside arm’s reach Social space – six feet out or more Public space – anything more than a ship’s width away (14 ft or so) Orthography (see file) Slang and Language Change Change moƱn – face à moun – something you do not want to look at (derogatory) trEg – sun à drəj – a cruel or oppressive person From Shael-veota; a language from esCoval in the remote south. Some of the Vey were taken to esCoval as slaves until the liberation almost a generation later. These were two of the words that slipped in) ((Note: moƱn is from Ariel Bohn while trEg is from Aleesha Harnett)) Slang How are you? voɹvɪn – literally ‘water how’ where you are asking someone in a vague metaphor how the water is, an indication how they themselves are, since they are so connected to the water. Any adjective to describe water can be used here, the most common being ‘calm’ which is the equivalent of saying ‘okay’ or ‘fine’. The question tends to imply emotional, social, and spiritual well being. Goodbye æʃ adʒmeɪ ʔɹɛʃ voɹ – literally ‘blue sky, calm water’. This saying goes back before anyone can track it down. Sometimes it is broken up into two parts, where it will be used as a ‘call and response’ type saying, or sometime one part, or sometimes both. It is thought that this saying brought about the mainland saying ‘southern winds, scarlet skies’ which is used in much the same way, though no one would admit this either way. Hey ʃeɪ – no derivation, a word that came about on its own. The vowel sound has changed a bit, but not dramatically. It is distinct sound and word unto itself, usually casually between those who know each other well as in families or family groups Washing lænesɪ – no precise literal translation, but a combination of ‘give’ and ‘bless’. Washing is part of the water rituals associated with religion.